Book Image

OpenStreetMap

Book Image

OpenStreetMap

Overview of this book

Imagine being able to create accurate maps that look how you want them to, and use them on the Web or in print, for free. OpenStreetMap allows exactly that, with no restrictions on how or where you use your maps. OpenStreetMap is perfect for businesses that want to include maps on their website or in publications without paying high fees. With this book in hand you have the power to make, alter, and use this geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on the Earth.OpenStreetMap was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways. This book will allow you to take control of your own maps and use them smoothly. This book introduces the reader to the OpenStreetMap project and shows you how to participate in the project, and make use of the data it provides. No prior knowledge of the project is assumed, and technical details are kept to a minimum.In this book, you'll learn how easy it is to add your neighborhood to OpenStreetMap using inexpensive GPS equipment, or even no GPS at all. You'll find out how to communicate with other mappers working in the same area, and where to find more information about how to map the world around you.Once you have your area mapped, you'll learn how to turn this information into maps, whether for use in print or online, large or small, and with the details you want shown. The book describes several rendering methods, each suited to different types of map, and takes you through a tutorial on each one.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
OpenStreetMap
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
4
How OpenStreetMap Records Geographical Features
Index

MapCSS—a common stylesheet language for OpenStreetMap


We've seen in this book that there are many tools available to render maps from OpenStreetMap data, but they all have different ways of creating rendering rules that differ to lesser or greater extents. While this allows you to get the most from each rendering application, it also means that creating the same style for different applications means writing new sets of rules for each one.

MapCSS is an effort to produce a unified stylesheet language for OpenStreetMap-based maps that any rendering or editing application can use. It uses the same syntax as the World Wide Web Consortium recommendation Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)—the language used for web stylesheets.

Designers creating rendering rules for OpenStreetMap would no longer need to write separate sets of rules for each rendering application they wanted to use, but instead would write MapCSS stylesheets, which are then either used natively by the application or translated into the...